SNOW ICE CREAM

REAL OLDIES HA HA

There is just one drawback… it’s getting harder to find clean snow nowadays. Of course we all know not to eat yellow snow, but there are a host of unseen airborne pollutants contaminating those fleckless-white snowflakes. If you are not in the city and out somewhere in the mountains or in the country somewhere, you might want to try it (at your own risk). Take 3 to 4 quarts of freshly fallen, clean snow and rapidly stir in 1 cup of sugar, some vanilla, or other flavoring to taste, and 1 to 2 cups of milk. Mix to desired consistency and serve while it’s somewhat frozen. It takes only a few moments to freeze. A richer version can be made using 1 cup milk and 1 cup coffee cream. Ice finely chopped in a blender may be substituted if snow is unavailable or you are concerned about its purity. SUGAR ON SNOW OR MAPLE CANDY Whereas the snow ice cream recipe makes a treat similar to ice cream, sugar on snow is more like candy. It’s a popular springtime tradition that has been enjoyed throughout eastern Canada and the northeastern United States for centuries. Native Indians were the first to discover this sweet, tasty, candy-like treat and they taught the early French settlers how to make it; the Algonquin Indians called it and maple sugar “sinsibuckwud.” Nowadays, this maple candy treat is also known as maple syrup on snow, maple taffy, snow taffy, or Jack wax, and in Quebec it’s called “la tire, ” which is a French-Canadian term for taffy or pulled toffee. Sugar on snow requires maple syrup, which is derived from maple tree sap. The maple sap is harvested from maple trees in the “sugar bush” and taken to the “sugar shack, ” a rustic building in which the sap is boiled or “sugared off” in a large evaporator which can process over 250 gallons of sap in an hour. During the labored process much of the water content is evaporated as steam leaving a concentrated, sweet-tasting maple syrup. It can take up to 40 gallons of sap to make just 1 gallon of pure maple syrup. To make sugar on snow the maple syrup is further boiled to reach the “soft-ball” candy stage (about 234°F or 112°C) and then carefully poured in a thin stream or drizzled onto fresh, clean, firmly packed snow and allowed to cool; it becomes an amazingly delicious, waxy, taffy-like candy that can then be scooped up and eaten with your fingers. Some New England residents even enjoy eating it with doughnuts and dill pickles to offset its sweetness. If you cannot visit a sugar bush, you can always purchase some PURE maple syrup at your local grocer (or on line if not available in your area) and try this fun recipe yourself at home. You will simply love it.